Alabama law has allowed sheriffs to keep leftover food money. A federal judge in 2009 ordered one Alabama sheriff, nicknamed “Sheriff Corndog” jailed, because he made $200,000 over three years while inmates ate corndogs twice a day.

Alabama Appleseed executive director Frank Knaack said the public has a right to know whether sheriffs “are meeting the basic human needs of incarcerated people in their care, or are instead filling their personal coffers.”